Each map is a visual guide to where a particular bird species may find the climate conditions it needs to survive in the future. We call this the bird’s “climatic range.”
The colors indicate the season in which the bird may find suitable conditions— blue for winter, yellow for summer (breeding), and green for where they overlap (indicating their presence year-round).
The darker the shaded area, the more likely it is the bird species will find suitable climate conditions to survive there.
The outline of the approximate current range for each season remains fixed in each frame, allowing you to compare how the range will expand, contract, or shift in the future.
The first frame of the animation shows where the bird can find a suitable climate today (based on data from 2000). The next three frames predict where this bird’s suitable climate may shift in the future—one frame each for 2020, 2050, and 2080.
You can play or pause the animation with the orange button in the lower left, or select an individual frame to study by clicking on its year.
The Sharp-tailed Sparrow, now considered two species (Nelson’s and Saltmarsh) winter exclusively in saltmarshes along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the U.S. Their collective winter range is projected to perhaps spread north into New England and the Maritimes, but their dependence on saltmarsh means that they won't be able to use inland areas and that sea level rise is an additional risk. Audubon's climate model doesn’t address the two species’ summer ranges. Based on projections for species with similar ranges and habitats (like Le Conte’s and Baird’s sparrows), the inland-nesting population of Nelson’s Sparrow may have a substantial shift in appropriate climate-space.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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